Milwaukee Bucks Move MECCA Court From The Hardwood To Their Uniforms

While court designs are all of the rage nowadays (as evidenced by the fact that more than a few NBA teams have rolled out alternate court designs in recent years), you could consider the Milwaukee Bucks as pioneers in that particular department. After all, the Bucks’ former home arena known as the MECCA was home to one of the most unique court designs to ever be used for NBA games. Robert Indiana designed the court and from 1977 until the 1987-88 season, the team played on the court that was either iconic or infamous — depending on your taste.

The court design was notable enough for the Bucks to decide to bring it back for a special game last season at what is now known as the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The MECCA court design is a big part of Bucks history and now it’s also a part of the Bucks’ uniform history as well. Nike’s City edition uniforms are continuing to be unveiled at this stage of the season and the Bucks may very well have the most infamous look of the entire bunch.

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Just as the MECCA court likely turned heads and caught plenty of eyes back in the 1970s, this uniform will likely be one of the most talked-about uniforms when we look back on this particular era of uniform design and aesthetics in the NBA. Simply put, there has never been anything close to what we’re seeing from the Bucks here with their City edition uniform for 2018-19 and this has probably become one of those uniforms that you think about when you look back on this particular decade.

For instance, when you think of the 1990s, you probably think of jerseys with oversized logos and cartoonish-designs. Now, when you think of uniforms in this current era, you’ll likely remember all of the times where designers truly pushed the envelope in the pursuit of coming up with a memorable uniform design. That is definitely the case with these new uniforms that the Bucks have unveiled.

Photo by Gary Dineen / NBAE via Getty Images

In fact, the franchise appears to be well-aware of the fact that this is a very provocative look for them. The opener of the team’s press release states that the team is “celebrating risk-taking” with these uniforms and that’s exactly what they’ve done here. This uniform is a huge risk as the jersey itself flies in the face of almost everything that we know and have come to know about basketball jerseys. The team name is running vertically, the number is off-center and there are different-shaped patches of color all over the jersey.

Photo by Gary Dineen / NBAE via Getty Images

This is in no way a normal uniform and sometimes that leads to good results and sometimes that leads to results like this. This is one of those jerseys that nobody would really be all that concerned about if it was a fashion jersey that you saw some random person wearing on the street. However, the bright lights of an NBA game are a completely different environment and in this environment, the uniform ends up falling on the ugly end of the uniform spectrum.

It’s due to the ugliness that this uniform will also be memorable as well. The Bucks’ 2018-19 City edition uniforms will not be the prettiest-looking basketball uniforms that you will see but you’ll definitely remember this look for years to come — just like fans remembered the MECCA court, itself.